Do jokes express our otherwise taboo wishes? Or does everyone just need a pie in the face? By Emma Allen
The semi-serious science of why we laugh. By Tad Friend
Chaplin’s epochal fame has tended to obscure the influences and instincts that infused his art with childlike purity.
By James Butler
The first time the man heard God, he uprooted his entire life, though he was very old. Then God appeared to him in person, an event which would embarrass later thinkers. God made the man an impossible promise in the shape of a son. His wife was ninety, and she laughed. When the child arrived, it was hardly unreasonable to think it a miracle. They named the child after the laughter.
By Colin Burrow
In 1904 Henry James’s agent negotiated with the American publisher Charles Scribner’s Sons to produce a collected edition of his works. The New York Edition of the Novels and Tales of Henry James duly appeared in 1907-9. It presented revised texts of both James’s shorter and longer fiction, with freshly written prefaces to each volume. It didn’t include everything: ‘I want to quietly disown a few things by not thus supremely adopting them,’ as James put it. The ‘disowned’ works included some early gems such as The Europeans. The labour of ‘supremely adopting’ the stuff he still thought worthy was grinding. He worked on the new prefaces, which he described as ‘freely colloquial and even, perhaps, as I may say, confidential’ (though James’s notion of the ‘freely colloquial’ is perhaps not everyone’s) during the years 1905 to 1909. In some respects, the venture was not a success. ‘Vulgarly speaking,’ James said of the New York Edition, ‘it doesn’t sell.’
By Jean McNicol
A week before the start of the Paris Olympics, Shoko Miyata, the 19-year-old captain of the Japanese women’s gymnastics team, was forced to withdraw from the competition by her national association. She had been reported to the Japan Gymnastics Association for smoking and drinking (on separate occasions, once for each offence). The president of the JGA, Tadashi Fujita, announced that Miyata had been sent home, and bowed deeply.
Country Life Magazine (August 7, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Huts for Heroes’ – Where adventures start…
Could Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, be considered an architect? He thought so — and Michael Hall tends to agree
Carla Passino salutes the modest Henry Tate, whose name will live forever in the art world
Healing, revealing, defence against thieving, our wildflowers’ names tell the story of our ancestors. John Lewis-Stempel reads the leaves
An Antarctic explorer’s base or a Scottish fisherman’s shelter, the humble hut is a crucial element in stirring tales. Robin Ashcroft opens the doors
Even the most distasteful jobs could offer compensations to savvy servants in the Royal Household, finds Susan Jenkins
The great Netherlandish masters have no equal in admirers and influence, believes Michael Hall
The biscuiteer picks a haunting scene in a lonely hotel room
Carla Carlisle pays tribute to the memory of a farmer, honest broadcaster and dear friend
What do the white behinds of rabbits, deer and foxes really say? Laura Parker deciphers scuts, rumps and rears
Securing the harvest is the weather watcher’s concern in August, says Lia Leendertz
Hetty Lintell wraps up in style ready to hit the beach
A party-ready sitting room and stylish touches for a home office
The fourth generation to nurture the garden of Glin Castle, Co Limerick, Ireland, is doing her predecessors proud. Caroline Donald explores a windswept haven beside the Shannon
Melanie Johnson conjures up treats with courgette flowers
Even the tiniest town garden can offer views and wildlife to rival open countryside, believes city dweller Jonathan Notley
Pamela Goodman gives in to whimsy in Wales
Harry Hastings delights in the Art Deco Hotel Casa Lucía in Argentina
Rosie Paterson rounds up the best new openings in Greece
President Biden has proposed radical changes to the Court. Reviewing them is a reminder of why reform is so hard, despite dissatisfaction and a wealth of ideas.
By Amy Davidson Sorkin
Julie Benko, who hit it big after going on in place of Beanie Feldstein in “Funny Girl,” has a lot of advice for the Vice-President, now that she’s done with waiting in the wings.
By Zach Helfand
The third-party Presidential candidate has a troubled past, a shambolic campaign, and some surprisingly good poll numbers.
By Clare Malone
Literary Review – August 3, 2024: The latest issue features ‘Rise and Fall of the Cromwells’; Thom Gunn’s demons; Prams and paintbrushes; Children of Atatürk; Friedrich in nature…
Fifty years after Shirley Chisholm ran for the Presidency, we find ourselves yet again questioning the durability of outmoded presumptions about race and gender. By Jelani Cobb
In Milwaukee, with a candidate who had just cheated death, the resentment rhetoric of Trump’s 2016 campaign gave way to an atmosphere of festive certainty. By Anthony Lane
She became famous playing buttoned-up Agent Scully. But in midlife her characters often have a strong erotic charge—and now she’s edited “Want,” a book of sexual fantasies. By Rebecca Mead
Country Life Magazine (July 23, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Talking Dogs’ – The secret language of the shepherd’s friends, Shooting on Lewis and fishing on the Test; Fired up – the foundry that made Trafalgar’s lions; Loving lapwings; Building with oak and summer in Paris….
It is mesmerising to watch one man and his dog moving a flock of sheep using a language all of their own. Katy Birchall admires the almost telepathic connection between sheepdog and handler
The pied plumage of the lapwing was once a common sight in our countryside and, as Vicky Liddell learns, moves are afoot to halt the beautiful bird’s decline
The heat is on for Catriona Gray as she visits the UK’s oldest-surviving art foundry, now forging a successful future hidden away in the Hampshire countryside
Patrick Galbraith is confounded by a case of mistaken canine identity when he embarks on a day of walked-up grouse shooting on the Isle of Lewis
Armed with an array of home-tied flies, David Profumo relishes pitting his wits against the wily trout of the South of England’s crystal-clear chalkstreams
We have been building with strong, sustainable and flexible oak since time immemorial — and the art continues to thrive, as Arabella Youens discovers
The 1924 Olympics were the crowning glory of a golden age for culture in the French capital. Mary Miers looks back to an extraordinary, liberating time
The chairman of the Almshouse Association chooses a striking portrait of a remarkable man
Jeremy Musson applauds the success of Woodford Hill Farm, a new country house perfect for its old Northamptonshire setting
He is seldom given due credit, but there would be no modern Olympic Games without William Penny Brookes, finds Kate Green
John Lewis-Stempel’s detour in Dorset is rewarded by an early-morning encounter with the enigmatic, elusive nightjar
Hetty Lintell is getting shirty with the best summer gents’ linens
Eleanor Doughty explores the top places for London commuters to buy out west of the capital
Caroline Donald hails the marriage of a 200-year-old villa with a contemporary garden in Kent
Melanie Johnson on cherries
The bay leaf wins the laurels as a symbol of strength, courage and wisdom, says Ian Morton
Neil Buttery examines the rise of the Anglo-Saxon Lammas loaf
Biden imperilled his candidacy at the debate because of his inability to speak coherently. At the convention, Trump was doing something similar, and couldn’t stop. By Benjamin Wallace-Wells
Months of fighting at the border threaten to ignite an all-out conflict that could devastate the region.
Our carceral system is characterized by frequent brutality and ingrained indifference. Finding a better way requires that we freely imagine alternatives. By Adam Gopnik
Country Life Magazine (July 16, 2024): The latest issue features ‘500 Shades of Green’ – Why is it the eye’s favorite hue; Rex Whistler’s triumph and tragedy; Big hearts and funny faces – the bull terrier and Alan Titchmarsh’s favorite flower show…
Our eyes can detect more of its shades than any other colour and its many hues are bound up with everything from jealousy to British racing cars—it’s all gone green for Lucien de Guise
‘Life is merrier when you live with a bull terrier’ owners tell Katy Birchall as she delves into the kindly and comic character beneath the muscular frame
Goodwill and gardening go hand in hand at the ‘beautifully formed’ Royal Windsor Flower Show—and Alan Titchmarsh wouldn’t miss it for the world
Rex Whistler refused to leave fighting the Second World War to ‘young boys’, but his courage and leadership was to cost him his life, as Allan Mallinson reveals
The Jersey chief minister picks a work that encapsulates the island’s spirit and determination
In the second of two articles, John Goodall investigates the 17th-century expansion that provided Lincoln College, Oxford, with a quite outstanding chapel
Music will ring around the Royal Albert Hall again this summer thanks to Henry Wood and his Proms, reveals Octavia Pollock
With more species around our shores than anywhere else in northern Europe, Ben Lerwill keeps his eyes peeled for porpoises, whales and dolphins
Hetty Lintell shells out on fine jewellery that is sure to impress
Debo Devonshire’s love of chic, chickens and Chatsworth in Derbyshire is celebrated in a new exhibition, discovers Kim Parker
Giles Kime explores large-scale wallpaper capable of transport-ing you to a whole new world
Tiffany Daneff marvels at the spectacular views that have been restored at the Old Rectory at Preston Capes, Northamptonshire
Crunchy fennel is a summer highlight for Melanie Johnson
Michael Billington is royally entertained as Shakespeare receives a modern, mirth-filled twist in Stratford and London
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